posted at 10:25 am on March 13, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Via JWF and Gabe Malor, this is why Republicans pray that Barack Obama keeps Joe Biden on the ticket. The Veep had a few things to say last night about the Republican Party and the middle class:

Biden told attendees that he is confident about Obama’s reelection because Republicans are being open about their intent to cut programs important to a large swatch of the electorate — the middle class.

“These guys don’t have a sense of the average folks out there,” he said. “They don’t know what it means to be middle class.”

And where exactly was Joe Biden speaking? At a local Perkins Restaurant? Perhaps a nice Red Lobster or Olive Garden? Not exactly:

Biden made the remarks at the Georgetown home of Senator John Kerry, where some 87 guests paid a minimum of $10,000 per couple to dine on char-grilled grass-fed New York strip steaks and white truffle mashed potatoes beneath a tent basked in soft pink lighting.

Ah, yes. Nothing quite says middle class like grass-fed beef and white truffle mashed potatoes at the home of a multimillionaire, while bathed in soft pink lighting and collecting $10,000 checks. And who were the middle-class attendees who ponied up the big bucks?

Pool reporter Tracy Jan of The Boston Globe noted some high-profile guests at the fundraiser, including “Elizabeth Bagley, former ambassador to Portugal and attorney specializing in trade and international law; Matthew Barzun, former Ambassador to Sweden who Obama has tapped to be his 2012 campaign finance chairman; Steven Green, former ambassador to Singapore; Bob Barnett, a Washington attorney who’s worked on eight national presidential campaigns helping candidates prepare for debates; Tom McMillen, former Maryland congressman; and Jack Manning, co-founder of Boston Capital.”

But don’t worry — these folks know the middle class. They hire them to clean up afterwards.

Update: I originally had the headline as $10K a plate, but it was $10K per couple. I’ve changed the headline, and thanks to the commenters who caught the error.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Oh hawkdriver, I have no problem re posting it. Used to be one of the best tools in the box. Cross posting that is. Ed told me to stop. Its okay, I just have to chase em around a bit more.

Bmore on March 13, 2012 at 11:39 AM

Must be a new policy. I used to have a couple “admirers” who liked to post my comments from years ago. Apparently they were too suggestive for a married women. But then I think that was before Ed was here.

Yep. All I can do is try to catch it when it occurs. Ed didn’t say anything about me reposting the offending comments with in the thread they were made on. So this is my new technique. Allah missed freshface last night on QOTD, but as I told you reprimanded two others.

Usually when Obama or Biden talk about the middle class, they mean a different thing, like The Average Person. The Average Person is not The Middle Class, it cannot be.

They are not the same people, even though that 99% suits the liberal lingo, usually the middle class is people who are not below the 50%-ers, they actually have a federal tax bill.

If you pay federal taxes then you might be the middle class. Some union jobs have pay scales that make working class look like this. It gives them a false picture of what the reality is.

Union jobs should not be compensated like middle class, the union should be reserved for people who don’t have money or power, and those positions. What we see in the federal government is people making more than in the private sector, and the president calling their well paid work, “public service.”

I agree when the Obama administration speaks about middle class they mean Union workers.

The President of SEIU Mary Kay Henry, representing 2 million plus Union “workers” endorsed Obama. She went on to describe the outreach to those Union “workers” to get them to vote for Obama this morning on MSDNC was the message coordinated with the above campaign event?

Class, Laborer, Worker.

Notice the lack of the word “citizen” you have to be a citizen in this country to vote. Well unless you are in Texas, Holder blocked the voter ID law.

It means Willard does not understand the peasants. He has been privileged his whole life. Born with a golden spoon in his mouth.

George Romney was worth millions. Mitt Romney has no idea what it means to be poor or middle class.

liberal4life on March 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM

Please throw a logic bomb my way because I’m failing to make the same connection.

rah4tard says “Willard does not understand the peasants. He has been privileged his whole life.”

Anectdotal BS aside what evidence is there that being ‘privileged’ makes it impossible to understand someone or identify with their individual or collective situation?

rah4tard says, “George Romney was worth millions. Mitt Romney has no idea what it means to be poor or middle class.”

Mitt’s father being wealthy has zero bearing on Mitt’s ability to comprehend the ‘idea’ of being poor or middle class. His experience living that way is notable but to claim he’s incapable of understanding it is intellectually lazy and frankly retarded… Oh! Now I get your screen name.

rah4tard says “Willard does not understand the peasants. He has been privileged his whole life.”

Are we not all born with certain advantages and disadvantages? Life isn’t about getting dealt a good hand, it’s about playing the hand you’re dealt well. Nobody’s ever regretted hiring Mitt Romney. Yes he’s rich. Yes he’s wonkish and boring. Yes, he’s a competent executive, something the country currently doesn’t have.

rah4tard says, “George Romney was worth millions. Mitt Romney has no idea what it means to be poor or middle class.”

George Romney earned his millions but he wasn’t fabulously rich. Yes he ran a car company, but it was American Motors, which never paid its executives the kind of money that the head of GM, Ford or Chrysler would have made. George Romney was so successful working first for the aluminum industry and then helping coordinate the domestic automaker’ war production efforts that a number of car companies wanted to hire him even though he was a fairly young man by industry standards. George W. Mason, who headed Nash Motors, handpicked Romney as his protege and that was a good call. When Mason died suddenly and Romney became head of the newly formed AMC, it was Romney’s championing of the compact Rambler that saved AMC. After Romney retired and went into politics, had his successor continued his policies instead of trying to go toe to toe with the Big 3, AMC might still be here today.

Yes, there’s a bit of an aristocracy in the domestic auto industry, with more than a little nepotism, but in the Detroit pecking order, George Romney (and his family) were pretty far down compared to the likes of Ed Cole at GM or Bunkie Knudsen at Ford.

It is much easier to donate the wealth from your father when he is a millionaire. Romney was setup from birth and I don’t believe him when he said he donated everything.

liberal4life on March 13, 2012 at 10:55 AM

As a member of the LDS church, I don’t think I';m mistaken that before he went off on his mission, he was not allowed to own personal wealth.
I’m sure he paid for his own mission.
But beyond that, I’m inclined to say that as a very involved member who is most certainly Temple worthy, that is exactly what he did with the wealth of his father’s estate.

I believe Mitt over Obama who says he ‘cares’ about this country, which he most certainly does NOT.

But don’t worry — these folks know the middle class. They hire them to clean up afterwards.